SaintsReport.com - Home Page

The New Orleans Saints’ potent running game will be short on some firepower to start the season.

The NFL has suspended Mark Ingram for the first four games of the 2018 season for violating its policy on performance-enhancing drugs. He will be eligible to participate in all offseason activities, including preseason games, but will not be able to take the field during the season until Week 5 against the Washington Redskins.

The Pro Bowl running back became one of the focal points of the offense over the past two seasons and is...

The Saints traded up to pick UTSA defensive end Marcus Davenport with the 14th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft on Thursday. Here’s a scouting report on his game from someone who’d know how to scout him— a retired NFL defensive end:

This fact is already known. There is no need to rehash the stakes. And even though snap judgments already exist about the deal, and it will be prematurely graded again after the season, it is probably going to take a few years before accurate evaluations exist.

That doesn’t mean we’re done discussing it. Not even close. One of the more interesting aspects of the trade came to light when...

The Saints haven’t been much of a feeder system for the rest of the league.

For a while, after the Saints became trapped in a buffering loop of 7-9 finishes, the roster was top heavy and without the kind of quality depth needed to succeed and endure injuries. Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen often calls the NFL a “backup league.” Well, when New Orleans needed one, it often turned to the street or waiver wire to see what was out there, or it churned the bottom of the roster.

There are better measures of success, like an 11-5 record and a playoff win, but it is interesting to evaluate the...

NEW ORLEANS
Time will tell whether New Orleans Saints officials over-paid to move up 13 spots in the first round of the 83rd annual NFL draft to acquire UT-San Antonio defensive end Marcus Davenport with the 14th overall pick.

Most post-draft analyses indicate Davenport is a worthy selection at No. 14 but not at the compensation GM Mickey Loomis handed to the Green Bay Packers — first- and fifth-round picks in 2018 and a first-rounder in '19. It is the kind of pick package that typically would result in the selection of a quarterback perhaps, but not a defensive end.

The New Orleans Saints made lots of noise in the 2018 NFL Draft, but other than Marcus Davenport, none was more controversial than selecting OL Rick Leonard in the 4th Round.

Rob Hodges of SB Nation’s page for Florida State University, Tomahawk Nation, took some quick time to answer a few questions for Saints to get to know one of their newest additions to the offensive line.

The Saints got a lot of flack for drafting Leonard in the 4th Round, with many pundits putting an “Undrafted” grade on him. Were you surprised to see him go off the board that...

METAIRIE, La. -- "It's got to be a quarterback. It must be Lamar Jackson."

That was the prevailing reaction when the New Orleans Saints made one of the biggest, boldest moves in this year's draft -- trading away next year's first-round pick and a fifth-rounder in 2018 to move up from No. 27 to No. 14.

And it was a fair reaction, considering that, well, no team in NFL history has ever made a move quite like it for a non-quarterback.

Instead, the Saints threw a curve ball, selecting defensive end Marcus Davenport from the University of Texas-San Antonio.

An inspirational story could bring underrated talent to the New Orleans receiving corps.

By Bob Rose

The New Orleans Saints have one of the best young wide receivers in the league in Michael Thomas. The rest of the Saints wideouts, however, struggled at times a year ago. Veteran Ted Ginn Jr. had one of the best years of his career in his first season as a Saint, but Brandon Coleman, Willie Snead, and Tommylee Lewis were inconsistent in their production. Snead departed as a free agent this past offseason, but New Orleans signed productive wideout Cameron Meredith away from the Chicago Bears, then used a 3rd...

The former North Alabama cornerback waited patiently to hear from an NFL team after the draft ended Sunday. Just when it seemed as if nothing was going to happen for Carnell he received a call from the New Orleans Saints on Thursday, inviting him to their rookie minicamp next week.

“I had not heard from anybody, so it was a little discouraging until I got that call,” Carnell said. “It didn’t happen when I wanted, but it is all on God’s timing. My family really supported me and I kept praying. I just wanted a chance to get my foot in the door and now I’ve got it.”

The New Orleans Saints signed undrafted free agents J.T. Gray and Colton Jumper, according to the league transaction report posted Thursday (May 3).

Gray is a 6-foot, 202-pound defensive back out Mississippi State who played in 45 games, starting 17, through his four-year career at Mississippi State. He finished his Bulldogs career with 65 tackles, eight pass break-ups, an interception and a forced fumble in his senior year.

Saban was recounting when he and Ingram finished second to Georgia Tech pair Paul Johnson and Jon Berry in the 2015 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Challenge at Reynolds Lake Oconee Resort outside Atlanta.

&#8220;We were in the playoff with Georgia Tech to win on about the fifth extra hole,&#8221; Saban said. &#8220;I said, &#8216;Mark, this is my last hole. I have to go speak.&#8217; There are whole load of people at the plane and they&#8217;re all calling every five minutes saying, &#8216;We&#8217;ve...

Make no mistake, Taysom Hill has to feel pretty good going into the 2018 season. He will undoubtedly have to beat out Tom Savage to win the backup job. Also, with the acquisition of J.T. Barrett, it’s likely to be a battle for that backup position. Nevertheless, Hill has the coaches’ eyes and some experience being with the team for a solid year.

The fact that the Saints didn’t select a quarterback, has to instill some confidence in Hill. Surely, Who Dat Nation was salivating in round one, when the Saints traded up to move to the 14th overall pick. The thought was that the Saints were going to pick a...

NEW ORLEANS -- No question that after last year’s bountiful draft for the New Orleans Saints, the 2018 version of let’s take a chance would be scrutinized in a way that no other draft would be.

No matter who the Saints chose this year, the comparison to 2017 would be made, even though none of the players selected starting last Thursday had even taken a snap in the NFL.

So, how did the Saints do in this year’s installment? That all depends on who you ask. The range of grades looks like the report card of a seventh grader going through the change to adulthood: it is all over the map.
ESPN gave the...